To maintain a special public power standing above society, taxes and state debts are needed.

"...Possessing public power and the right to levy taxes, officials," writes Engels, "become, as organs of society, elevated above society. The free, voluntary respect with which the organs of tribal (clan) society were regarded is no longer sufficient for them — even if they could win it...» Special laws are created concerning the sanctity and inviolability of officials. "The most wretched police functionary" possesses greater "authority" than representatives of the clan, but even the head of the military power of a civilized state might envy the elder of a clan, who enjoys respect acquired "not at gunpoint" from society."

The question of the privileged position of officials, as organs of state power, is here posed. What is outlined as fundamental: what places them above society? We shall see how this theoretical question was practically resolved by the Paris Commune in 1871 and how it was reactionally obscured by Kautsky in 1912.

"...Since the state arose from the necessity of holding in check the antagonism of classes; since it simultaneously arose out of the very conflicts of these classes, it is as a general rule the state of the most powerful, economically dominant class, which by means of the state becomes also

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